The object of the game is to hit the opponent's button on top of the box. Once a hit is made, the hitter's camera takes a snapshot of the victim. The hitter receives a point for the hit, and up to 2 additional points can be added by the judge based on the quality of the snapshot.

The quality of the snapshot is based on the following criteria:
1. If the opponent's face can be seen in the snapshot then the hitter is awarded 2 points.

2. If the opponent's face is not visible, however a body part of the opponent is, then the hitter is awarded 1 point.

3. If no sign of the opponent exists in the snapshot, then the hitter is not awarded any additional points.

Players will immediately be disqualified if the referee deems any play as dangerous play. Dangerous play can be defined by, but not limited to, one or more of the following actions:
No striking with fists
No hair pulling
No eye gouging
No choking
No kicking
The opponent automatically wins the game if a player commits any of the offenses in a manner considered by the referee to be careless, reckless or using excessive force. The Referee has ultimate say on the matter of dangerous play, and the player will not be able to contest.

The clock will be stopped and a player will also be awarded a point if the opponent steps out of the circle.

Each game lasts for 30 seconds and the judge will hit a bell to signify when the 30 seconds are over. The clock is stopped every time a hit is made and then continued after the points are given. When the clock continues, the players must start again in the starting position.

The winner is the player with the most points at the end of the game. If the score is tied at the end of a game, then the game goes into sudden death. In sudden death, the winner's hit and snapshot score will be calculated into the final score of the game.

I bought too many Japanese snacks...

The simultaneous video input thru firewire and USB turned out to work really well. I was really pleased with the relatively clear photos and very little lag. I suddenly feel this game will actually work by the end of the semester, with this break through. Because after this, the problems are more things I can control. Playtesting went well today, I thought.

People came and went. People were usually watching and they enjoyed it, it seemed. There were about 5 games played with different people -- people of different heights and there was one pair that was boy vs girl.

Here are the photo rules I used:

1 pt for a hit (director automatically awards)
0-2 pt for a photo (judge awards)
...2 pts when opponent's face can be seen
...1 pt when opponent's body part can be seen
...0 pts when there is nothing

-- Ideally there would be a seperate judge and ref, but due to limits in time, I just played both.
-- I used a 10ft diameter circle which was perfect. Not too small, not too big. I am not sure exactly if there needs to be a rule or not here but this is something to still consider.
-- The game was only 30 secs long, but it seemed long enough that there were enough hits, it didn't get boring, and people didn't get too tired. I installed a button that manually freezes the timer and score and plays a boxing bell to announce the end of the 30 secs.
-- I curved the straps more so that the box lies further towards the front. This makes it easier for people to get hits and for the camera to take good shots. This was pretty successful I thought.
-- The starting position was good, especially when the players have their arms outstretched, because they can't get into a hit position before the game starts.
-- I am starting to get a hang of the phrases used by the ref, like "get into your ready positions" or "there is 15 seconds left on the clock," etc...

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Comments I got:
-- People ALWAYS ask me why the top of the head. But when I explain the reasons, then they usually think it's fine.
-- People thought it was suprisingly physically tiring although they thought the 30 sec interval was pretty good.
-- There seemed like a little confusion about the photo and hit points. Charles Truett, good friend and avid gamer, gave me some great advice. What if there were no automatic awarding of points by the comp and instead the comp would only show who made the hit. Then the judge would award the points. This makes sense since, there needs to be more clarity with who hits. A lot of people would ask who made the hit when a hit was made. Also, the all the points responsibility goes to the judge. It makes it clearer that way what is happening. In this case the point system would go something like it does above, but he judge would be the only one awarding the total points. So, a sort of control board -- something easy to use -- would have to be created with the following buttons: START, RESET, 1pt, 2pt, 3pt, END.

A direct free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a player commits any of the following six offences in a manner considered by the referee to be careless, reckless or using excessive force:
kicks or attempts to kick an opponent;
trips or attempts to trip an opponent;
jumps at an opponent;
charges an opponent;
strikes or attempts to strike an opponent;
pushes an opponent.

A direct free kick is also awarded to the opposing team if a player commits any of the following four offences:
tackles an opponent to gain possession of the ball, making contact with the opponent before touching the ball;
holds an opponent;
spits at an opponent;
handles the ball deliberately (except for the goalkeeper within his own penalty area).

Panel of Judges:
In boxing there is a panel of 2 (?) judges constantly taking points for moves besides the knockouts so that if there is a tie, the points are tallied. In Hit Me! there could also be judges who evaluate the photos. So in addition to the point attained from getting a hit, there are more points for good photos.

The problem with this is that it would be sort of a pain to make sure there are non-bias judges at all games. There is already a ref who has enough responsibilities -- wouldn't it be sort of overkill to add more ref-like people to the mix when it is supposed to be a simple spectator sport?

Referee:
The ref could be the judge for the photos. The problem here is that the ref has enough responsibilities already. The ref starts and stops the game, and if the whole boundary thing becomes a rule then, that's a lot of stuff to keep track of, a lot of responsibilities.

Audience Participation:
This I think would be the ideal situation -- if the audience could vote for the better photo. However, this would perhaps be too time consuming to have people wait in line or too technically difficult making numerous buttons. I thought about putting it online if it were some sort of tie-breaker, but then people would have to come back to see the results or they would end up seeing results at home -- which is no fun. Well, this is something to consider in the future, but not this time around.

Set Criteria:
The rules could be the judges! If there is a simple enough, straightforward enough point system for the photos, then the rules themselves could essentially allocate the points. In other words, say each hit is worth 1 point. The snapshot quality is then worth a possible maximum of 2 more points. Here's the breakdown:

you get 0 points if there is no sign of the victim
you get 1 point if there is some sort of body part of the victim
you get 2 points if you can see the face of the victim

All the fuzzy stuff in between can be taken care of by the ref. How about that?

I don't really want to depend on the PC tower to get my project working with the lab closing so early all the time. So it's frustrating. I am thinking about purchasing a Canopus ADVC-55, but they are not so cheap. Hopefully Ebay will have them for less. I guess no one uses analog video anymore?

Also, Jenks suggested I tilt the top of the box so that the button is slanted forward. But because there is no slanted enclosures that leave room for the camera, I don't think I should try to make one. It could shatter easily and hurt people. I should try to stick to the commercially available boxes for now I think. In the meantime, I thought I could play with the placement of the box -- perhaps move it slightly forward so that the camera is aimed slightly lower as the hitter would probably be jumping up when making the hit. This should solve the button problem for now too.

For next meeting:
- rules that stop people from getting hurt
- redesign hat with slant
- make camera work so that point stuff can be figured out
- Point question (encouraging more strategy, using photo...)
- when above stuff is figured out, then playtesting!